Justice That Kills Not

The next morning, the sea wind howled.

The warship raised sail and left the shore. White flags gleamed beneath the sunlight as Rock and Zephyr stood at the bow, their figures drifting farther and farther away with the waves.

The soldiers at the harbor watched the departing ship and immediately began chattering excitedly—

"This is Major General Rock's first mission!"

"I can't wait to see what huge thing he'll do!!!"

"He'll definitely shock the entire North Blue!!!"

"But I heard from people under Vice Admiral Garp..." one soldier whispered. "He usually fries his enemies into charcoal. He basically never leaves anyone alive..."

"Seriously?! That's way too terrifying—"

Just as the soldiers were discussing it fervently, someone suddenly interjected weakly:

"But... I saw that he left with Vice Admiral Zephyr."

"Isn't Vice Admiral Zephyr..."

Before he could finish, the harbor fell silent for three seconds.

Everyone wore an indescribably complicated expression.

"So this time... what exactly will happen...?"

Meanwhile · Marine Headquarters Intelligence Division

Sengoku and Tsuru were seated beside the intelligence table, reviewing developments in the New World.

Garp strolled in with a rice cracker in his mouth, as casual as ever.

"Yo~ You're both here~"

Sengoku glanced up at him. "Cut the crap. What are you here for?"

The moment Garp sat down, he pretended to ask casually, "So... where is that brat Rock going for this mission?"

Sengoku flipped through a file. "North Blue. A medium-sized pirate crew that recently emerged. He chose it himself."

The corner of Garp's mouth stiffened. "North Blue..."

A trace of suppressed heaviness flashed through his eyes, but he quickly waved it off and pretended to be relaxed. "It's nothing, it's nothing. I was just asking~"

At that moment, Tsuru suddenly looked up, her voice soft but sharp. "Garp."

"Does Rock... have something in mind?"

As soon as she spoke, Sengoku stopped what he was doing as well and looked at Garp with a slight frown.

Garp froze for a moment. "Huh? Why would you ask that?"

Tsuru did not answer. Instead, she pushed a thick pirate dossier toward the two of them.

"See for yourselves."

Sengoku looked down and flipped it open, his expression instantly darkening.

The dossier listed a series of horrifying crimes: burning cities, kidnapping, forced labor, massacres, torture killings, human trafficking...

Behind every charge was the same note: Unresolved / Unaccountable.

Veins bulged on Sengoku's forehead as he roared, "The crimes these pirates committed are too damn—"

Before he could finish, Tsuru interrupted softly. "I heard... Rock insisted on taking Zephyr with him."

Sengoku froze at that, then looked at Garp. Clearly, he had not known.

The wisdom of the Buddha immediately allowed him to grasp the crucial point.

"Garp... you knew all along?"

Garp was silent for a long while before finally nodding.

"That kid..."

He took a deep breath. Looking at the pages full of dark crimes, his eyes sank. "He's probably trying to use this chance to—"

"Set some things straight."

Sengoku and Tsuru understood in an instant.

Every Marine had their own justice, and Zephyr's was the most unusual of all.

After witnessing the meaningless slaughter of war, Zephyr had established his principle of "not killing." He believed the weight of life surpassed everything, and that the Marines' purpose should be arrest, not execution.

What Rock had displayed so far, however, was a resolute conviction born from witnessing too many tragedies firsthand: "Evil should not be allowed to keep living."

They were both correct paths, yet paths that could hardly coexist.

At that moment, Tsuru let out a soft sigh. "So that's how it is..."

She silently slid another thin file across the table.

Sengoku and Garp exchanged puzzled looks, then casually opened it.

The next instant, it was as though silent thunder exploded through the intelligence room—their pupils abruptly contracted.

The sea shimmered under the sunlight, and the wind was gentle.

The warship sped toward the North Blue, its wake cutting a long white line across the sea.

At the bow, Rock sat lazily on the railing, enjoying a brief moment of peace in the wind.

Zephyr stood beside him with his arms folded, his breathing steady, his gaze fixed resolutely on the distant horizon.

The sea breeze fluttered their clothes. It was so quiet that time itself seemed to have slowed by half a beat.

Then Rock suddenly spoke, his voice as light as an offhand remark:

"Big Brother Zephyr, I heard your justice... is not killing?"

Zephyr's shoulders visibly stiffened. After a moment, he let out a quiet sigh.

"Yeah, you heard about it too."

He looked toward the horizon, and countless memories of past battlefields seemed to pass through his eyes.

"I've seen too many wars, and too many meaningless deaths."

"To me, human life is the most precious thing. It stands above everything else."

"The Marines' mission should be to arrest evil, not to personally end lives."

"So whenever I carry out a mission, I try my best not to kill. I only defeat them and bring the pirates back."

His voice carried an obsession he had upheld for many years.

However—

"And then wait for them to escape and go on burning, killing, and plundering?"

Rock's indifferent words shattered the calm, cleaving the air apart.

Zephyr sharply turned his head, and doubt appeared in his eyes for the first time.

Rock shed his lazy demeanor. With a light tap of his toes, he dropped from the railing onto the deck, his gaze turning sharp.

"Even if you know they've killed hundreds, burned cities, destroyed villages, and tortured innocent people as if they were toys..."

"You would still choose not to kill?"

Zephyr opened his mouth, but could not give a firm answer.

Rock suddenly raised his hand and flicked it.

Slap.

A thick dossier smashed into Zephyr's arms.

Zephyr lowered his head and flipped through it, his face darkening bit by bit.

──Burning cities

──Slaughtering villages

──Enslavement

──Torture killings

──Pillage

──Live human experiments

──Kidnapping, human trafficking...

Every crime seemed to be written in the wails of the innocent.

Zephyr's fingers trembled faintly against the edge of the documents.

After a long while, he spoke with difficulty. "As long as we capture them and let the law punish them... at least..."

Rock raised his head, his gaze profound. "Big Brother Zephyr, you've captured quite a few pirates."

"But over the years, how many have truly turned over a new leaf?"

Zephyr's lips trembled slightly, but he could not name a single one.

He fell silent.

The sea wind fell silent too.

It was as though the entire world were waiting for his answer—an answer that could never hold true.

Amid that suffocating silence, Rock suddenly asked in a low voice, "Big Brother Zephyr."

He slowly turned around, his eyes incomparably calm beneath the golden sunlight.

"If one day—"

"I really spread lightning across Marineford..."

"If someone with powers like mine became a person who had to be stopped."

"If you couldn't stop a tragedy without holding the resolve to 'kill the other person.'"

He slowly raised his head and met Zephyr's shocked gaze.

"What would you do?"

In an instant, the sound of the wind over the sea stopped.

The shadows of the clouds stopped.

Even Zephyr's breathing stopped, his heart clenching violently within his chest.

Because Rock's question was not a hypothetical. It was something that could truly happen.

Zephyr stared at Rock, his Adam's apple bobbing, but no sound came out.

Rock waited quietly.

The sea remained calm, yet it seemed that in the next second—

A storm would rise.

Zephyr's life in the original story—